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13 March 2012

Cold Wars 2012

Back from Cold Wars. Had a good time. Spent time with old friends that I don't get to see nearly as much as I'd like. Although my events had to be scaled down, I think they still worked out well. Only 6 players (I allowed a max of 8) per event showed up. I played in a couple Day of Battle games. Got to see a lot of great games.

In fact, how about some photos? (More wordy bits at the end.)

My two WAB events. I revisited my previous Cimbric War demo game, with a few adjustments. Romans on the left in the first photo/game, Romans on the right in the second one. Romans won both games, though the Cimbri snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the second game. They had managed to take both flanks, but instead of timing their frontal & flank assault on the Roman line, they hit it piecemeal, in one-on-one frontal combats.

At one point a couple of guys walked by to look at the game, and one turned to the other and knowingly explained, "Lord of the Rings." I got an internal laugh out of it, but was too busy helping my players resolve a combat to explain otherwise.

These next two photos are of a table used for two games, if I understand correctly. First was a "Red Dawn" scenario, second was a zombie game. It was just inside the Distlefink Hall (my game was in the lobby on the other side of the doors) and at one point during my first game, we heard the cry go up, "Wolverines!" Great looking table.

I assume this is some sort of Mars/VSF game.

A double blind WWII game.

Great use of the "teddy bear fur" terrain. There were a couple of table using that material.

A couple shots of a beautiful looking game. Don't know what it was -- Napoleonics or 1812? Some more great looking games/tables follow.

Three shots of what appeared to be a 54mm War of 1812 game.

Another zombie game. 15mm this time. Hordes upon hordes of zombies flooding the streets. Some nice LED effects on some of the terrain, too.

So, as usual, lots of great games, terrain and figures. A lot of zombie games. Probably one of the most popular genres.

I sold off some of my stuff in the flea market. Not as much as I would have liked, but I have no room to complain. Got rid of a few last bits of painted fantasy figures, as well as both painted and unpainted historicals. The most popular painted stuff -- by a long shot -- were the ancient Spanish. I would have never thought that, but I suppose there are always Romans, Celts, and similarly popular figures for sale.

I spent a record low this time. I only bought a couple items. The only flea market purchase was a single action airbrush that was labeled "never used," though when I got home & unboxed it there was obviously paint on it. I only paid $15, so we'll see how it goes. In terms of figures I bought a set of Eureka 18th century civilians that includes their string quartet set, C. E. Bach & his clavichord, Fredrick playing the flute, and Fredrick & Voltaire out for a walk. I also grabbed two packs of hobbits from Goblin Factory, and some pirate women from Bronze Age. That's it.

Architects of War Also had a great booth in the dealers hall. In fact, I *love* they way they display all the plastic kits, with a painted example of the contents on a pedestal behind each stack of boxes. I really wanted to take home the Otherworld giant, but it was way more than I could justify spending.

The only dark spot was having to deal with a seriously rude woman in the flea market. As I was still unpacking and putting prices on some things, she started rummaging through my stuff (she had a table too -- well, three of them, apparently) and disappeared with some of it, explaining "my table's right over there." Later on, after the market had started she returned some of it, but kept at least one item. Later still, I had to go looking for her to either get my item(s) back or collect my money. Rather than pay what I was asking, or even try to haggle, she more or less insisted that I should take what she was offering. After a second trip closer to the end, I finally collected the rest of it. It wasn't even the money itself that annoyed me -- rudeness really irritates me and will only make me unwilling to give ground against that sort of person/behavior.

So this was probably my last show for a while. I'm not sure when I will be able to get to another one. Historicon is definitely out. A little bittersweet, as I had previously resolved that I needed to put painting and gaming aside, but this weekend really reminded me of how much I enjoy the hobby. So I'll see what I can try to work on in the little spare time I've got.